Sharmila and I were having a quiet evening over a drink sitting at Alpharetta Main square, when I thought I recognized somebody walking by. Sure enough, it was Kumar Jandalaya! Another Equifax colleague of mine. In fact, today, after Chris Kramer and Eddie Welch, Kumar was the third ex-colleague from Equifax that I met!

Bill, Kumar, Sharmila and I settled for another round of drink as we talked about all sorts of things in life. A lot of it was about traveling!

Chris Kramer and I had joined Equifax pretty much around the same day. Other than being team mates, we had found another connection. His mother was the teacher for both Natasha and Nikita in their elementary school!!

We had a fun time catching up on old friends, learnings from our different jobs and our families!

“It does not matter, Rajib. Just tell me your route and I will intercept you at a Starbucks”, texted Neal.

Neal was not going to give up. He was determined to meet Nikita and myself. He tracked our route as we hopped between colleges and then met us up at a Starbucks by the highway on our way from Boston to Providence.

I have previously described this guy as one of the smartest persons I have worked with. The joy was all mine to see him and exchange notes again.

I had met Neal and Avia about two years back when he was in Atlanta for a wedding. One of the topics we had talked about that day was taking a year off between jobs. That day, I had come home and looked for a picture of me and Nikita during one of those times I had taken a year off. You might remember the post from here: https://www.rajibroy.com/2019/08/25/meeting-one-of-the-smartest-guys-i-know/

Thanks to Neal, we were able to put Nikita, Avia and the two of us (actually, their dog too!) in the same spot. It was a great time at Starbucks. Avia has grown up so much. Enough to realize that Nikita would be the better audience for all her stories than Rajib uncle!!

Neal and I caught up on all the exciting stuff he has been up to in the last couple of years. I have to admit – missed Kim and Veera though. We had missed them last time too!

Maybe next time!

After a lot of stuff going on in the personal front, landed up in Boston with Nikita. Turns out we were staying in a hotel not too far from Ram and Preetha. It was already late but not too late for Ram and Preetha to make some time for me. They are the nicest people that way. The last time I met them is when they came to Boston airport to meet me in between flights or something.

It was great catching up on each others’ personal lives and literally run down the roll call list of Optiant employees!!

Can’t wait to see this too again!